Blog Archives

Our recording of “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” is featured in this video with Balboa dancers Andreas Olsson and Olga Marina, taken with a “flying camera” – the visual effect is stunning and whimsical, given the great talent of videographer Carsten Kramer and the dancers. The video was taken at the Werkstätten Hellerau in Dresden, Germany when the dancers were in town for the Balboa Dayz event. Enjoy!

What started out as a Mint Julep Quintet gig at G2B Gastro Pub on November 7, 2014 ended up a full-fledged Mint Julep Jazz Band for the second set – our regular tenor player Keenan McKenzie joined us from the audience and trumpet player Jason Bohde stopped by to sit in. Thanks to Keenan’s dad, Woody McKenzie, who filmed us and to Jack Mitchell for editing and uploading to YouTube! Check out “Egyptian Ella” and “Some of These Days” below:

We are featured in the August issue for our Music in the Library recordings!

The Mint Julep Jazz Band is excited to be invited to provide music for Our State Magazine‘s Music in the Library video series, which shares and highlights songs from North Carolina musical artists filmed at Our State Magazine’s headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. We filled up their cozy library space with eight musicians, swing, and hot jazz on a hot June afternoon and the results came out great, using just three microphones and three cameras.

We are also featured in the magazine’s August issue – pick one up from your local North Carolina newsstand!

We are very excited to have some updated videos of the Mint Julep Jazz Band – thanks to Ashley Warren, our videographer, who got some great footage at our performance for the Triangle Swing Dance Society’s dance at the Murphey School in Durham on February 1! Six new videos posted below:

“Rockin’ in Rhythm” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

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“Betcha Nickel” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

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“Undecided” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

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“Sugarfoot Rag” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

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“Besame Mucho” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

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“Darktown Strutters Ball” (encore) performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.

As part of Yehoodi’s ILHC broadcast, they put together this entertaining and concise explanation of Lindy Hop for the masses who may not know exactly what that entails – the background track is the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s “Miami Boulevard,” off our new album “Durham on Saturday Night” – woot!

The sound quality is a little iffy, but here we are performing at All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio! We had a great time being a part of the weekend back in June, which definitely has us looking forward to returning to Cleveland in February for SparX at Case Western Reserve University. Until then, enjoy this little Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald tune – special thanks to Douglas Kaufman for filming and for sharing on YouTube:

We are so excited to have been involved in this project with Sesame Street – here is the segment of the show where we provided the background music. The word of the day is “scuplture.” 🙂 Click on the link below to watch!

Tune in to Sesame Street on April 18, 2013 to hear an original Mint Julep Jazz Band song in one of the non-muppet segments! We are excited to have an air date and to finally be able to make this announcement, which we’ve been keeping quiet about since September, when Lucian composed and we recorded the song.

How did this happen? It’s all about networking (or being in the right place at the right time?) – we performed at a local wedding in August and one of the guests thought we’d be perfect for a project he was doing for Sesame Street. After a few phone calls and emails we had about a week and a half to put everything together, from Lucian composing the tune, getting everyone in the same place to record it, culling enough equipment together to have a quality recording, to lots of little logistical hurdles that occur when you are contracting out your services. Needless to say, everyone in the band was really excited to be involved in something that was going to appear on Sesame Street, and, with that motivation, we pulled it off in a very short amount of time.

If you can’t tune in to the show, there may be a way to watch it online after the air date – stay tuned!